Entries in george r.r. martin (13)
S&L Podcast - #71 - Dance with Dragons wrap-up
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 11:11PM Yes this week we wrap-up our thoughts on "A Dance with Dragons" and there is quite a bit to talk about. Meantimes there's other stuff in the worlds of Swords and Lasers, including a couple top 100 book lists to debate. And debate them we do!
QUICK BURNS
NPR: Your Picks: Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books
S&L Top-100 Science Fiction, Fantasy Titles
Write an adventure novel in three days, the Michael Moorcock way
CALENDAR
8/16/2011 The Omen Machine by Terry Goodkind
8/16/2011 Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
8/17/2011 The Edinburgh Dead by Brian Ruckley
8/18/2011 By Light Alone - by Adam Roberts
8/23/2011 The Measure of the Magic: Legends of Shannara By Terry Brooks
8/23/2011 The Power of Six (I Am Number Four) By Pittacus Lore
BARE YOUR SWORD
TV and Movies
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Spoilers Imminent)
EMAILS
Veronica,
I would like to urge you to listen to Little Fuzzy with an open mind. The story is neither misogynistic, nor racist and I think that you may just find it delightful. Piper's work, like that of Asimov and Heinlein, is a product of the 60's. The characters smoke and drink martinis. True, there aren't many female leading characters. The lead female character is named Ruth and she is no secretary. She is a powerful lawyer and central to the plot. For the early 1960s I'd say this was fairly progressive.
The cast of human characters is also fairly diverse racially and culturally. Piper envisioned a universe that was not America-centric and numerous characters have Muslim or Hindi names or were the products of interracial marriage. By the standards of the day, this would be considered very progressive.
What might throw you is the fact that the story is indeed dated. The good guys and bad guys are pretty well defined and protagonist Jack Halloway is not flawed in the way that people expect a good character to be. He's something like an old cowboy, I suppose. Some of the technology is humorously dated -- he has to run his movie film through a portable processing lab, for example.
The story addresses some very deep social issues, mainly what constitutes humanity. How do we decide when to confer human rights to non-humans?
This book was the first sci-fi novel I read as a kid. The gateway drug, one could say. I've been hooked ever since.
Side note: You'll remember that during the live interview with David Gerrold at DragonCon last year, he mentioned that he had originally called his creatures Fuzzies but had to change the name to Tribbles because of the H.Beam Piper novel. Also, much of Piper's work is available for free as it has slipped into the public domain.
Anyway, I had to speak up for one of my very favorite authors. Thanks for your awesome podcast. I hope to see you guys again at DragonCon this year.
-Rick Parker
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BOOK CHECK-IN
ADDENDUMS
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S&L Podcast - #70 - A Dance with 50-70 Percent of the Dragons
Monday, August 1, 2011 at 11:09PM We're not done with the old George R.R. Martin book just yet, but we actually got a chance to see the guy in person, and met some of you folks too! And ate Mexican Food! We have no complaints about life now. Except for the series Alphas.
QUICK BURNS
Stannis and Melisandre cast for GAME OF THRONES
Tad Williams talks to George R.R. Martin
Pottermore launches competition to select beta users
Alastair Reynolds to pen DOCTOR WHO novel
Attack the Block makes fighting aliens cool again
World Science Fiction Travel Fund
CALENDAR
8/2/2011 The Diviner by Melanie Rawn
8/2/2011 Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
8/9/2011 The Magician King: A Novel by Lev Grossman
BARE YOUR SWORD
A Dance with Dragons > Loss of Focus (I just don't care anymore)
Finished Series (read last two or three posts
TV and Movies
Falling Skies is on (Spielberg produced)
Harry Potter 7 Part 2 (spoilers?)
BOOK CHECK-IN
A Dance with 50%-70% of the Dragons
EMAILS
I don't know if you talked about this before, but it always irks me that you're using percentages when talking about how far along you are in an ebook. Perhaps you should solicit suggestions for a word that defines an ebook page in your forum. Here's my suggestion:
Fage |fāj|
noun
a page in an ebook reader or ebook application of arbitrary size. I'm currently on fage 364 of 1,663 in The Wise Man's Fear iBook. ORIGIN early 21st century: from English fake page.
Cheers,
uv.
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Hi Tom and Veronica!
I was wondering if you were planning to have another Sword and Laser meet up in Atlanta during DragonCon?
From Jenny C.
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ADDENDUMS
This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.
S&L Podcast - #70 - A Dance with 50-70 Percent of the Dragons
S&L Podcast - #69 - 100% Dinklage
Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 9:13PM We're stoked about more than just A Dance with Dragons this week. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction is going online for free next year! Comic-Con is coming, which means awesome YouTube videos! And we sing a welcome to the newbies in our GoodReads forum. But you should listen anyway.
QUICK BURNS
George R.R. Martin confirms 'Dunk and Egg Vol I'
Encyclopedia of Science Fiction online and free
All the Coolest Events You Can’t Miss at Comic-Con 2011
CALENDAR
7/19/2011 - Star Wars: Choices of One By Timothy Zahn
7/26/2011 Ghost Story (Dresden Files, No. 13) by Jim Butcher
7/31/2011 Troika by Alistair Reynolds
8/2/2011 The Diviner by Melanie Rawn
8/2/2011 Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence
BARE YOUR SWORD
From Singularity into La-La Land?
BOOK CHECK-IN
Veronica is at 36%. Tom is significantly behind her.
EMAILS
Starting at about 11:00 in the S&L podcast number 68, Tom said something like, "Those are three book trilogies, there's lots of examples of those. Addams is at least a five book trilogy." All with a straight face. Have fun, Rob
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ADDENDUMS
This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com the internet’s leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non-fiction and periodicals. For a free audiobook of your choice, go to audiblepodcast.com/sword.
